Sign up for our Daily Newsletter and never miss a story.

Donald Trump on Thursday hinted he is going to pardon Roger Stone, his longtime ally who was convicted of witness tampering and lying to Congress as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

Trump's hint came in response to a tweet from right-wing agitator Charlie Kirk, who tweeted, "Roger Stone will serve more time in prison than 99% of these rioters destroying America All because he supports Donald Trump. This isn't justice. RT for a full pardon of Roger Stone!"

<p>In response, Trump tweeted, "No. Roger was a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt, one which will go down as the greatest political crime in history. He can sleep well at night!"</p><p>Stone was <a href="https://americanindependent.com/roger-stone-sentenced-40-months-prison-donald-trump-russia-investigation-2016-election-congress/" target="_blank">sentenced</a> to 40 months in federal prison in February for his crimes.</p><p>The Trump administration tried to <a href="https://americanindependent.com/donald-trump-roger-stone-intervene-justice-department-william-barr-doj-twitter/" target="_blank">intervene</a> in the case, recommending leniency for Stone. The move by Attorney General William Barr to get involved in a case against one of Trump's allies caused some members of the Department of Justice to <a href="https://americanindependent.com/roger-stone-doj-justice-department-prosecutors-resign-case-donald-trump-tweet/" target="_blank">resign in protest</a>.</p><p>The judge in the case disputed that Stone was the target of a witch hunt, as both Stone and Trump <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roger-stone-judge-instagram_n_5c6b1233e4b0b9cc78ff507e" target="_blank">allege</a>.</p><p>"He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president," Judge Amy Berman Jackson said at Stone's sentencing. "He was prosecuted for covering up for the president."</p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<!-- NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2 -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" data-ad-client="ca-pub-8573325940152694" data-ad-slot="NationalMemo\/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" style="display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><p>Trump has a habit of pardoning those who support him, even when they do not meet the traditional criteria of pardons. Those criteria include a five-year waiting period, as well as the person taking responsibility for their crimes, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon-information-and-instructions" target="_blank">according</a> to guidance from the Department of Justice.</p><p>For example, Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/politics/sheriff-joe-arpaio-donald-trump-pardon/index.html" target="_blank">pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio</a> — a Trump supporter who was convicted of criminal contempt after he refused to follow a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos — even though Arpaio did not take responsibility for his crimes.</p><p>Stone also does not meet the criteria. He was sentenced in February, far short of the five-year waiting period. And he's attacked the judge and the prosecutors on his case rather than admit fault and seek forgiveness.</p><p>He is currently scheduled to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/politics/roger-stone-prison-date/index.html" target="_blank">report to prison on June 30</a>.</p><p><em>Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.</em></p>

The video clip is a mere 36 seconds, but it is shocking, explicit, sickening. And because it has gone viral -- prompting national outrage -- two white men have finally been arrested and charged in the death of a black jogger in southeast Georgia in February.

That hardly means that the family of Ahmaud Arbery will get justice, that his killers will pay for their crime. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, have been charged with murder and aggravated assault, but they must still be tried and convicted. The outcome is uncertain. The quest for a righteous outcome has staggered this far along only because of the emergence of that appalling few seconds of video.

<p>With its revelations, powerful politicians are saying all the right things. On Thursday, Georgia's Republican governor, a Trump acolyte, told reporters that the video is "absolutely horrific" and "Georgians deserve answers."</p><p>U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., said she is "deeply concerned" by the killing. U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., who is challenging her for the seat, was more pointed: "What I saw on the video is disturbing and wrong and looks like a criminal act," he tweeted. "It must be thoroughly investigated and I can't imagine why it has taken this long to come to light."</p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<!-- NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2 -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" data-ad-client="ca-pub-8573325940152694" data-ad-slot="NationalMemo\/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" style="display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><p>Collins' comments point to the disturbing facts at the heart of the case. Local criminal justice officials have apparently had the video since Arbery's death on Feb. 23. Rarely have prosecutors been handed more explicit evidence of a crime. There is no evidence to suggest Arbery was armed, yet no arrests were made. Instead, one prosecutor managed to contort the video to blame Arbery, offering legal exculpation for a modern-day lynching.</p><p>On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Arbery, 25, was out for a jog in a suburban neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. He had been a high school football standout, and his mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, said her son liked to run to stay in shape.</p><p>But as he jogged through their neighborhood, the McMichaels thought he looked like a criminal. They armed themselves and chased him down in their pickup truck, according to published reports. Arbery was shot dead in the confrontation that ensued. A friend of the McMichaels, William Bryan, followed in his own vehicle and apparently made the video.</p><p>Because of a tangle of conflicts of interest -- the elder McMichael was formerly a member of local law enforcement -- two prosecutors recused themselves from the case. But before he removed himself, the second prosecutor, George Barnhill, wrote a letter to the Glynn County Police Department declaring that the McMichaels had done nothing wrong.</p><p>Barnhill wrote that the McMichaels were within their rights to pursue a "burglary suspect," and if Arbery reacted after they pulled their weapons on him, the McMichaels were also within their rights to shoot him dead.</p><p>Barnhill recused himself, by the way, only after pressure from Arbery's mother. She has told reporters that she searched the internet for information on the McMichaels and discovered that the son, Travis, had worked in the office of a different local prosecutor alongside Barnhill's son. Jones clearly has some insights into the curious ways in which justice is administered in her part of the world.</p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<!-- NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3 -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3" data-ad-client="ca-pub-8573325940152694" data-ad-slot="NationalMemo\/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3" style="display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><p>Despite Barnhill's attempts to vindicate the McMichaels, though, there is no evidence that Arbery had committed a crime. In the video, he is clearly jogging, not fleeing. And it shows him trying to get around the McMichaels' truck, stopped in the middle of the street. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has taken over jurisdiction of the case, had no trouble seeing evidence of the McMichaels' misdeeds.</p><p>Still, there will be many more efforts to absolve the McMichaels, including the ongoing campaign to smear Arbery. Local criminal justice officials have pointed to his conviction for shoplifting in 2018, as Barnhill did in his letter, and to an indictment for bringing a gun to a basketball game when he was in high school.</p><p>If there is any lesson in this, it's one that black Americans didn't need: Racism is alive and well, and the lynching of a black man may still be legalized by the criminal "justice" system.</p>